Heather’s Story

I’m Heather. In November of 2021 I achieved 30 years beyond my parotid cancer diagnosis.

Since cancer diagnosis – in those 30 years – I…

Completed surgery and cancer treatment.
Returned to and graduated from college.
Have been married for 22 of those years.
Had two wonderful sons, now teenagers
Bought a business.
Founded a business.
Trained for and completed MS 150s.
Trained in taekwondo.
Have run(and walked) many 5Ks with my family.
Have lived my life as a beautiful woman, and no one has dared tell me otherwise.

The dividing point in my life began when I noticed this weird, solid bump by my right ear the size of a big marble at the age of 19. The ENT I visited dropped the “tumor” word. A few sentences later, “that’ll have to come out.” Also: “these are almost always benign.”

Surgery was November 1^st, 1991. It took 6.5 hours to extract the full right parotid gland and the tumor that was wrapped completely around both it and my main facial nerve, and the doctor found a “suspicious” section in the tumor. Said tumor was also the scientific size of “three-and-a-half golf balls.” After surgery, the right lower side of my face didn’t move at all, and my eye blinking experienced decreased function. Final pathology returned an agonizing two weeks later and confirmed that section of the mostly benign tumor was malignant.

My cancer is minor compared to most. Radiation alone was likely to zap all remnants of the cancer, but the radiation field they’d have to cover was immense – half of my face and my neck into my chest. The oncology team worried about a second cancer induced by the treatment because I was so young. Without the radiation, the chance of parotid cancer recurrence was too high. Parotid cancer is typically not treated with chemotherapy.

Radiation began in January, extending through March of 1992.

With healing, facial movement and function came back, though this took several months.

Late in 1992, I underwent plastic surgery to de-keloid my scar.

Everyday Side Effects

Hypothyroidism. Easy to manage, thankfully. Little pill in the morning. Wait a bit to eat.

Xerostomia. Dry mouth. I manage this with lots of water. Xylimelts are amazing. I’m 49 and have great teeth, uncommon 30 years after head/neck radiation. If I think about lemons, I can make myself salivate some.

Neuropathy. My spine was in the treatment field, and neuropathy arrived in 2005. It’s more jumping nerves than actual pain – tingling, but it runs from my feet all the way into my upper legs and feels like physical anxiety.

Tinnitus, or ringing ears, is common. My right ear also fights some upper register hearing loss and definite constant ringing.

Facial Disfigurement. Doing life as me anyway.

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